Birthday Candles
by rantandrumour
Summary: What happens to Molly the day Alex was shot. One shot. Idea from all the speculation that something has actually happened to Molly


**So, I decided to write this instead of Jenette this weekend. Its a oneshot, kind of angsty, and I just decided to take the beginning of Ashes and twist it morbidly into this story. Thanks to rolephant for helping me with various plot bunnies, such as explaining why Layton would talk to Evan or Gene,for helping me when the writer's block elves came to work their magic and also for helping me with ages and various other random facts that no one cares about. :) I do not own Ashes, except for in the amazing fantasy land that is my mind.... Reviews are always appreciated.**

* * *

Molly sat in her mum's car, slightly frustrated that she had to go to school. It _was _ her birthday after all! But mum had always been on her about work.

Molly thought back to one of her first memories.

"Do your work, Molls, and you'll never need anything from anyone."

Her mum certainly was independent. She didn't know why she had gotten that way. Evan had told Molly once that her mother had once been dependent and loving, but when she turned about ten, she decided she didn't need any help with anything.

Molly knew why. Alex was about ten when her parents died. Molly didn't know how. Her mum would never talk about it. Molly figured her mum had repressed the memory. Although she wasn't young, she was on her way to becoming a psychologist.

Molly had always wanted to be a psychologist. She had always wanted to please her mum, to feel like the most important thing in her mum's life. Alex always was working. If Molly interrupted her she would get extremely frustrated.

Molly came back to the present. She looked in the backseat. There was a file sitting there. Molly was curious, but if she looked, her mum would probably get mad. She looked back up at her mum. She was on her mobile, concentrating on the road, talking about some case that she needed to wrap up.

"_Figures," _she thought. _"It's my birthday and all she cares about is her bloody job." _ In a rush of preteen rebellion, she grabbed the file in the backseat. She opened up the folder to be met by the picture of a man, who looked depressed. Over his face was stamped "SUICIDE." Molly looked to the second page, where notes started.

"_My name is Sam Tyler. I was had an accident and I woke up in 1973. Was I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever had happened, it was like I had landed on a different planet. If I could figure out why I was here, maybe I could get back home."_

Molly read this in disbelief.

"Yeah, whatever. That is so lame," she blurted out. Her stomach sunk. Her mum looked over at her, finally done with her phone call. She looked angry at first, but then made her face friendlier.

"Return the classified document, thank you!" Alex took the file from Molly and threw it in the backseat.

"What did Evan get you for your birthday, Molls?" She was trying to change the subject. Molly looked out the window.

"A Blackberry."

"Oh yeah? I'll get you some more while you're at school and you can make yourself a birthday crumble!"

Molly smiled, inwardly grimacing at the terrible joke. Mum really had no sense of humour.

"Did you Dad manage too...?"

"No he's in Canada with Judy."

"Hmm." Alex looked angry. Molly decided to change the subject back.

"So this guy, Taylor."

"_Tyler,"_ her mum corrected. "He died. April last year."

"Schizo? Delusional? What's the German one? Is he going in the book?" Molly used quote signs to reference the book that her mother had been spending so much time on lately.

For a moment, just a moment, Alex looked proud. Her daughter was on the right path in life. Then the emotion was hidden.

"Oh, DCI Tyler's getting a book all to himself." Suddenly the police radio kicked in. It announced a hostage situation. Molly inwardly rolled her eyes. She was going to be late again.

"Pass me the thing, Molls. Pass me, pass me..." Alex reached her hand out to get the light stashed on the passenger's side of the car.

"I'll do it!" Molly put the light on the roof, excitement replacing annoyance. It wasn't often that you could go through London this fast.

As Alex kept driving, a feeling formed at the pit of Molly's stomach. Something was wrong. She knew that her mum shouldn't be going to negotiate this time. The car stopped and Alex stepped out.

"Okay. Stay here, sweetheart."

The feeling of dread had permeated throughout Molly's entire body. "Mum, don't go."

It was too late. Alex had walked off already. Molly stayed in the car until she couldn't stand it anymore. She pushed her way to the front of the crowd. Alex was standing there, with her hands up. The gunman had his gun pointed at her. He was going to shoot her! Molly was sure of it. She ran under the tape.

"Mum!" It all happened in an instant. Alex was running to her, screaming. And then she felt someone holding her. A cold tube was pressed to the side of her head. Alex looked lost.

"You stay back! Or I'll blow her head off!" He began to lead her down the stairs.

"Down them steps!" he yelled at her. "Get down them steps! You stupid little girl!" He led her under the bridge and slapped her face. Then he squatted down.

"I'm not gonna bring you into this. This is between me, your mother, and an idiot." She looked up at him. He raised his gun and fired. The shot echoed, and the man ran off. Molly heard her mother's voice. She walked out from underneath the bridge, and almost fell over as her mother hugged her.

*

They were on the Millennium Bridge. Alex looked at Molly.

"Your godfather's gonna take you home, Molly. I've got a stack of reports and I'm..." Alex's voice trailed off. She pulled Molly in for a hug. Molly was rather surprised. Had Alex noted the anger on her face?

"Oh Molls, come here. Come here."

Molly got even angrier. It was her birthday, they had both nearly gotten killed, and Mum was still going to work!

"You could've got killed in front of me!" she tried to tell her mum through those words that she was angry at _her, _for always doing her job. For never bothering to really include Molly in her life. Brilliant psychologist though she was, Alex didn't pick up on any of it.

"Molly, I told you to stay in the car." Oh great, so it was her fault now was it?

"You know, it's a hard screwed up world, you know? But if you trust me, I can try to help you get through it." Molly looked over and saw Evan.

"Evan!" She ran away from her mum, happy to see her godfather. He was the only true parent she really had. He was always there for her. He was what she wanted her mum to be like. Not the presents that she got, she wasn't a material person really. She just wanted the attention, the feeling of love like she got when Evan was around. He hugged her.

"It's alright Scrap. What say you we get you a cake, a seriously chocolaty one. And then I can pretend I know something about Shakira and you can take the piss out of me."

Molly laughed. He could always make her smile, no matter what kind of mood she was in. She started to leave, but turned as she heard her mother's voice calling at her.

"We'll blow the candles out together okay?"

"Okay!" she called happily.

Her mum blew a kiss at her, and she jumped up to catch it. It was just a stupid thing she used to do as a kid, and now that she was twelve, she was thinking of stopping that. Evan put his hand on her shoulder.

"C'mon Scrap. Let's get you that cake." Molly got into his car, thinking about her mother's last words to her.

"_We'll blow the candles out together, okay?"_

"_Yeah, right," _Molly thought. _"If you ever get done working."_

Evan started the car. Molly sat and stared out the window. She didn't mean to be like this. She loved her mum. It was just, now that she had gotten older, she noticed things more. She noticed how Alex always seemed to be working. Molly honestly couldn't remember the last time her mum and her had spent the day together.

Evan's phone rang. He put it on speaker, so that he could drive hands free. The voice coming through the other end made Molly shiver.

"Evan White."

"Yeah, Layton."

"You might as well just hang up the phone. I don't want to talk to you."

"Yeah, you're gonna have to listen, cos I got a piece of your past standing right here in front of me."

"Who would that be?"

"Tim and Caroline Price's daughter." Molly gasped. He had her mum! Molly knew her mum shouldn't have gone into work today. She heard her mum in the background, yelling at him, but couldn't make out the words. Typical Mum. Layton seemed to ignore her however.

"I'm gonna tell her the truth about why her parents died."

Unexpectedly, Evan slammed on the brake. The car screeched to a halt. Molly slammed back in her seat. She looked out the window. A lorry was speeding towards them, and she knew it wouldn't be able to stop in time. Molly closed her eyes and waited for the crash.

A loud noise, searing pain. Molly knew she was dying. The lights swirled round her, and she heard Evan's voice.

"Please, no! I have to save Molly. Please don't I'll give you what you want... just wait!" His voice grew muffled, and finally was silenced altogether.

She felt someone pull her up onto their lap. She opened her eyes, but couldn't see anything except a blur of colours. She knew that something was wrong with her mum, and they needed to know. She tried to speak.

"Mum...gotta save my mum...Please." She felt her body being shifted and something wet fell on her face.

A woman's voice spoke.

"She was sweetheart. I promise you, your mum is fine."

Molly felt her body go limp as her world faded to darkness.

*

Molly felt as if she was floating. She was heading toward something, she didn't know what. Suddenly the blackness cleared, and she was on a boat. She heard a man in the back.

"That's your choice." The phone beeped off. She heard her mum's voice in the background again, and though she could make out the words, she didn't really listen. A shot rang out. Her mum fell back, blood flowing from a wound in her head. The man ran off the boat.

She looked at her mum. Alex muttered something, her eyelids flickering, before she fell back into unconsciousness.

"I'm coming back to you, Molls." Molly felt bad for everything she had thought this morning, but knew there was nothing she could do about it now. She somehow realised that if her mum survived, she would no longer have a daughter, and might even have a dead godfather. Molly knew her mum wouldn't really live like that. She'd drink herself to death.

Molly reached out, the tendrils of her somehow still alive subconscious reaching out to find her mother. She found it; her mum's occupied in thought, like she was in a different world. Molly spoke, hoping her mother would hear her.

"You've just been shot... a second ago. You're lying on the cold wet ground. Don't fight to wake up. It'll hurt too much if you do."

She wanted to say more, but the world flickered around her, and once more it went back.

*

The couple saw the lorry smash into the car and a girl go flying. The man ran over to where the girl lay crumpled in the road. She was barely breathing. He propped up her head and held her in his lap. Her eyes opened, and she stared at him unseeingly, seeming just to know his presence was there.

"Mum... gotta save my mum... please." His wife approached him and took the girl into her arms, tears flowing freely down her face.

"She was sweetheart. I promise you, your mum is fine." The girl sighed and went limp in the woman's arms.

The woman's hazel eyes stared at the lifeless body below her. A hand was on her shoulder.

"Alex," the man said, "I think you need to let her go. The medics have to get to her, love."

"I'm fine Gene," she said. _"Your mum is fine Molls, and I'll blow out those candles tonight like we should have."_

Alex looked over at her husband. He was looking at her seriously.

"If getting our anniversary cake now seems wrong..."

Alex shook her head. "No, let's get the cake. We'll celebrate life."

"Candles this year?"

"Yep. Twelve now. One for every two years we've been married."

Gene smiled at her.

"We'll blow the candles out together."

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**So that's my attempt at a oneshot. Reviews are appreciated! Sorry about everything I've been doing to Molly in my stories, its just I'd rather Alex have Gene! (can you tell?)**


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